OpenStack Provider Networks

As an OpenStack newcomer, I got confused around the concept of “Provider
Network” on a OpenStack cluster. As many of the core component developers does
not even know or came acorss such a term, it is always a challege to
understand and work with it. In a production deployment of any type, may be an
Enterprise deployment or NFV deploymnet, “Provider Network” is an integral
part of it. Any consultant who works on a production deployment, will
eventually come across it. Here I am posting my understanding of Provider
Networks, as I understood it from experts.

What is a “Provider Network”?

Provider network is external to the OpenStack cluster, which should be
accessible to the guest VMs.

This network would be configured by the cloud operator and cannot be
controlled by the tenant.

It is of type either flat or VLAN. It does not support VxLAN network
type.

The propeties of the provide network like physical bridge, VLAN
segmentation id are choosed by the cloud operator, rather than neutron.
All these properties will be provided to neutron net-create command to
create a provider network.

It is possible to configure the provider network to acquire address via
DHCP running externally or via neutron.